Julia Sonntag: Always One Step Ahead of Stagnation

Born and raised in Überlingen, Julia Sonntag enjoyed a childhood by the lake that she couldn’t have wished for better. “It’s these beautiful childhood memories that have kept me by Lake Constance my whole life so far,” Sonntag explains. Her school years, on the other hand, were nowhere near as smooth. First, she transferred from a Waldorf school to a public high school; then she had to repeat ninth grade—because she didn’t want to conform to the standard mold, or more precisely: because sitting still, lecture-style teaching, and rote learning didn’t sit well with her. “My extroverted nature also caused me to rub people the wrong way quite often,” says Sonntag.

To escape the confines of school, she spent most of her youth at the dance studio—it wasn’t uncommon for her to take dance lessons six times a week. For a total of eight years, she competed in dance championships and stood on the podium several times; performances with a show dance group even took her to Morocco. “It was an incredibly wonderful time, but if you want to dance at the front of the line, you have to show an immense amount of discipline and ambition,” notes Sonntag, who danced in virtually every competition and with every show group, and who also helped organize the performances and took on two children’s groups as a dance instructor, “though the main focus was clearly on making sure the children had a good time so they’d want to come back to the dance studio on their own.”

A completely different opportunity landed on her classroom desk in the form of a flyer: students were being sought for the newly created Youth City Council in Überlingen. No sooner had she picked up the flyer than she filled it out, signed it, and dropped it in the town hall mailbox. “I knew right away that I wanted to be part of it. Even before that, I’d always been curious to find out what was happening politically in Überlingen,” explains Sonntag. Shortly thereafter, in a campaign speech, she outlined her goals and what she hoped to achieve in her hometown. When the election results were announced and she was elected to the newly formed Youth City Council, she was overjoyed. “And because I wanted to gain as much experience as possible, I ran for higher office whenever I could,” says Sonntag, who eventually became Chair of the Youth City Council after two years. “The biggest lesson I learned was that local politics requires a great deal of patience. That’s why it was important not to let setbacks get me down and to consistently pursue our goals,” explains Sonntag, who—as she herself puts it—is a “little stubborn” and also had to learn to remain open to compromise.

For Julia Sonntag, however, studying political science was never an option: “At the time, business felt like the right choice for me; it was supposed to lay the foundation for everything that was to come.” And so she earned her high school diploma at a business-focused high school in Überlingen. Thanks to the school’s excellent reputation and its dedicated faculty, her senior year felt like a fresh start in school. “There, I not only discovered the joy of learning but also my interest in business administration in general and international economics in particular,” explains Sonntag.

As mentioned at the beginning, it was important to her to stay at Lake Constance for her bachelor’s degree as well. But simply studying business administration wasn’t enough for her; she wanted her studies to be more personalized and interdisciplinary. She already had a contract for a dual study program sitting on her desk when she unexpectedly came across the CME bachelor’s program at ZU. “Because some of my teachers at my first high school didn’t think I was capable of passing the Abitur, I initially found the idea of studying at a private university far-fetched,” Sonntag reports. “But once again, my gut told me that applying was the right thing to do.” So she was all the more delighted to receive her acceptance—and a ZU scholarship to boot: “I was especially happy because studying at ZU sounded like a treasure trove of opportunities with something for everyone.”

After just a few days—and for the first time ever—she began to feel that she had truly found her place in a new environment. “Suddenly, I found myself in the middle of a sea of people, all of whom were different in their own way and had fascinating life stories to share,” Sonntag notes. She spent the first few weeks exploring everything ZU had to offer. Her wide-ranging interests quickly led to diverse involvement in student organizations. No sooner had she started her studies than she was already serving as Event Director at StudentLounge e.V. and a Member of the Recruitment Team for the career program ZUtaten. “The great advantage of getting involved in student initiatives is that there’s nowhere else where you can network with other students so quickly,” explains Sonntag.

Even though the role of Executive Board Chair at StudentLounge e.V. and the responsibilities that came with it were a complete mystery to her, Julia Sonntag didn’t shy away from running for the position. And with success: For more than two years now, she has been responsible for the legal entity, which means meticulously ensuring compliance with every government regulation—a task that has led to the occasional sleepless night as she grappled with issues related to association law and contract law. This summer, however, it’s all coming to an end: She doesn’t want to run for a fourth term and plans to focus instead on her upcoming bachelor’s thesis.

“After taking the required courses in the third and fourth semesters, I realized that courses focused solely on business weren’t fulfilling for me,” Sonntag explains. “In contrast, when working in teams, I found myself asking over and over again why people act the way they do. To understand these behaviors, I took every psychology course offered at ZU starting in the fifth semester.” She was particularly drawn to courses on business and economic ethics: “Because, especially in modern leadership, it’s absolutely essential to respond to how employees think, feel, and act.” She explores the question of exactly when people’s moral principles falter and which mechanisms lead to unethical behavior in both her Humboldt project and her bachelor’s thesis. In doing so, she quickly touches on concepts such as moral disengagement, pressure to perform, and self-regulation.